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Suspected Islamists hunted down and beaten in liberated Mali towns

French troops aboard a tank are greeted by the population as they arrive in Timbuktu on Monday. (HANDOUT / REUTERS)

By Jerome Delay and Krista LarsonThe Associated Press

Tues., Jan. 29, 2013

GAO, MALI—It was payback time Tuesday in the newly liberated town of Gao in Mali, with residents hunting down and beating suspected Islamist extremists who had not fled with their brothers-in-arms as Malian and French military forces closed in and retook the town.

Malian troops bundled the men into an army truck, their hands bound behind their backs. For the better part of a year, the Al-Qaeda-linked extremists had banned music, insisted women cover themselves and began carrying out public executions and amputations in the towns of northern Mali that they controlled.

Now the Islamists' control of the cities has slipped, with the provincial capitals of Gao and Timbuktu coming back under government authority in quick succession with the arrival of French and Malian troops. They also may have lost control of a third key city, Kidal.

France, the former colonial ruler, began sending in troops, helicopters and warplanes on Jan. 11 to turn the tide after the armed Islamists began encroaching on the south, toward the capital. French and Malian troops seized Gao during the weekend, welcomed by joyous crowds. They took Timbuktu on Monday. The Islamists gave up both cities and retreated into the desert.

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But not all of them left.

Members of a youth militia, the Gao Patrolmen, went house-to-house hunting down suspected Islamic extremists in Gao. Abdul Karim Samba, spokesman for the group, said men were scouring the town for remnants of the extremist Islamist group known as the Movement for Unity and Oneness of the Jihad, or MUJAO.

“They are the Islamists who have gone into their homes to hide, so we've been rounding them up to hand them to the military,” he told The Associated Press.

On Tuesday, Tuareg fighters from a secular rebel group said they also were now in charge of Kidal.

The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad — Azawad is the Tuareg's name for their homeland — appears to have taken advantage of the French-led military offensive to assert themselves in Kidal. Phone lines were down there, making it difficult to independently confirm the group's claim. The loss of Kidal would mean the Islamists no longer control any of the northern provincial capitals that they had seized last April.

On its website, the NMLA said it is ready to work with French troops and fight terror organizations. However, it said it would refuse to allow Malian soldiers in Kidal and the other towns under its control in northeastern Mali, following allegations that the troops killed civilians suspected of having links to the Islamists.

Timbuktu Mayor Ousmane Halle said Tuesday he hopes to return home in the next 48 hours from the capital but that the Islamists had destroyed part of the airport's runway before leaving, making it hard for planes to land.

Halle had a message for Iyad Ag Ghali, the leader of the extremist group, Ansar Dine, which imposed strict Shariah law in Timbuktu last year and forced thousands to flee in fear.

“In one of the meetings I had with Iyad Ag Ghali, he told me that the whole world knows he is the master of Timbuktu. But today it's me that is the mayor of Timbuktu, and he is on the run like an animal,” Halle told AP.

To help battle the Islamists in their desert hideouts, a U.S. military official says the Pentagon is considering setting up a drone base in northwest Africa to increase intelligence collection.

The official says the U.S. signed an agreement Monday that would set the rules for greater American military presence in Mali's neighbour to the east, Niger, which would be the most likely location for any new drone base. The official in Washington spoke on condition of anonymity because no final decision has been made.

African and Western nations on Tuesday pledged more than $450 million to fund an African-led military force to continue the fight against the Islamist extremists in Mali. The promises of money and equipment were made in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa at a conference held by the African Union, which said $960 million is needed to fund the Mali campaign.

Britain, meanwhile, pledged troops on Tuesday to help other African governments in the region counter a rising tide of Islamist radicalism, Reuters reported.

Up to 240 British troops could be deployed as part of two missions to train African troops, 40 in Mali as part of a European Union mission, and a further 200 in anglophone West African countries, Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman said.

At least 70 more British personnel could be involved in logistical and support missions. “It is an African operation in support of the Malian government and we think that the right way to do this is for regionally-led forces to take the lead,” the spokesman said, adding Britons would take no combat role, according to Reuters.

The increased logistical support for France includes a ferry to transport troops and equipment to Africa, and allowing France and its allies to use Britain for air-to-air refuelling.

Britain has also offered to set up a “Combined Joint Logistics Headquarters” in Mali, but France believes such a facility is not needed, Cameron’s spokesman said, adding it would be kept under review.

A decision on whether to send up to 200 British soldiers on West African training missions is expected to be taken soon after African Union-led discussions in Addis Ababa, while talks are taking place in Brussels over troops for Mali.

The French military operation has so far met little resistance though experts warn it will be harder to hold on to the towns than it was to recapture them from the Islamists.

France's defence minister said the job was not yet done.

“The operations are not finished, and we need to work alongside African troops and Malian troops until they take over,” Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told the French parliament on Tuesday afternoon.

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